Progressive Assimilation Through Generations

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Progressive Assimilation through Generations

Mexicans are not the first group of immigrants to encounter assimilation problems. A newspaper argues assimilation for Mexicans is more successful than many other immigrant groups in the past. Tyler Cowen, a professor at George Washington University, explains that following Mexican immigrant families for 3 to 4 decades gives a clear, concise model explaining how well they are assimilating. The first members of the family to arrive on United States soil assimilate slowly, but each generation after becomes more American through language, salary, and even divorce rates. His article details how Mexicans are on a faster track to assimilate than the Italians, Irish, Polish etc… were in the early 1900’s. He mentions a study that measures variables including salaries, property ownership, family size, crime rate, and languages spoken. When comparing Cowen’s research with Sandra Cisneros’ novel The House On Mango Street many similarities arise including the generation gap between older and younger Mexicans. The study supports this essay’s claim that Esperanza is able to assimilate into the culture without losing her own self-identity or falling into the typical gender roles defined by tradition. The ability to assimilate is more than just speaking the language; assimilation is living comfortably amongst natives and immigrants without feeling targeted or segregated.

The House on Mango Street begins with Esperanza’s large family moving from a rented apartment to their own home. She is unsatisfied with the one bedroom home and thinks it is overcrowded. Living there is not as shameful as the apartment they had come from, but the house is not something Esperanza wants to declare her...

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Cisneros, 44.

David G Gutiérrez, “Social Polarization and Colonized Labor: Puerto Ricans In the United States, 1945-2000,” in The Columbia History Of Latinos in the United States Since 1960, ed. Kelvin A. Santiago-Valles and Gladys M. Jimenez Munoz (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), 87-145.

Gutiérrez, 106-107.

John J Macisco Jr. “Assimilation of the Puerto Ricans on the Mainland: A Socio-Demographic Approach,” International Migration Review 2 (1968) 21-39.

Macisco, 30.

Macisco, 21.

Marysol W. Asencio, “Machos and Sluts: Gender, Sexuality, and Violence among a Cohort of Puerto Rican Adolescents,” Medical Anthropology Quarterly 13 (1999):107-126.

Marysol W. Asencio, 120.

Marysol W. Asencio, 116.

Cisneros, Section 27.

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